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Customer Review: A Victorian Paris Hilton
The main character Undine is focused on having the best, most expensive clothing, furniture, jewelry and whatever else she can get her hands on no matter the cost, financially or otherwise on those around her who are forced to support her. Undine has an intense need to know all the important people when they are in style or just when it suits her interests to know them. These traits may remind you of some of the famous socialities today who are famous for almost no other reason than they are famous. Undine does nothing more than talk her way into money, which along with her beauty is her sole talent.
Undine does many things that may make the reader uncomfortable, and although I hesitate to label her as bad, she has a lot of attitude and total disregard for others. Her conquests create an engaging narrative fueled by her selfish personality. She takes advantage of people who love her - parents, men, other family - in a cold, calculating way that seems devoid of passion, except for one early affair that we only hear about after the fact.
One of Wharton's major points in this novel is if you have a society where women's place is not college or business, or some other trade that allows them to fend for themselves, they have few choices in life. Creatures like Undine can emerge in this environment. Her choices in life are similar to cut-throat business practices like that which the men around her do and even her father is involved in.
Although I have read Wharton's major novels, this an exceptional one because of the spectacular character of Undine and the quality of writing. Hard to put down.
Customer Review: Relentlessly Modern Masterpiece
The unsympathetic protagonist is still a tough sell in literature. You can't admire Lolita without mentioning your dislike of Humbert. A discussion of A Confederacy of Dunces-comic as it is- is incomplete without mention of the creepy neurosis of Ignatius Reilly, and so on. For the unlikeable protag to be a woman is a virtual invitation to have your book ignored or disparaged on that account alone.
So Wharton's decision to put the amoral Undine Spragg at the center of The Custom of the Country was bold.Spragg bullies her parents into moving to New York from Kansas because she senses that the city is the center of the world that she wants to conquer. Wharton's treatment of the character and her perceptions is splendidly ironic. When Spragg is invited to a posh dinner, she is disappointed to note that the fire in the grate isn't a gas log or an electric light, but an old-fashioned wood fire.
It is because Spragg is, unlike Wharton, devoid of any introspection or sense of right and wrong that we have to read this as a deadpan piece of satire. Wharton's prose is wonderful and although this book is not read much these days, she considered it her masterpiece.
--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
bang BANG: A Novel
Customer Review: A personal response to Wharton's characters
I hope to report only subjective responses to this novel, After Ethan Frome the only Wharton I've ever read. And having got through this one, I shan't be tempted to take on any more of her work. I leave it only puzzled as to why she is a major figure in the history of American letters.
I disliked all of her characters. They are thin, stereotypical representatives of time, place and behavior, and Undine -the central character - is the worst. Her frail and uxorious husband, Marvell, [the ironic names given to people and places are redpaint obvious] had no better future than suicide, although facing his problems directly would have resolved them. Apart from the acquisitive Elmer Moffat none of the major characters even sensed a moral imperative and Elmer's morality is limited to relationships.
I wanted to put the book down early in Book I but slogged on thinking at first it must be satiric then realizing it isn't satire at all but a realistic attempt to portray characters typical of the preWWI world Wharton knew so well. And I've no doubt her's is an honest portrayal of that world. Yet, I grew so grouchy when reading my wife said I ought stop reading it. My mood grew darker with every page. Undine is the most odious female character I can remember ever reading .
I do credit Wharton for her felicitous prose style and her narrative structure because nothing else kept me turning pages. Yet even the narrative is melodrama at best.
Surely I've overlooked important issues and have revealed more about me than about Edith. As they say in theatre, not everybody can be part of your audience.
Customer Review: Fantastic
Despite the fact that Undine Spragg is an appalling woman, I found myself quite mesmerised by her (she would expect nothing less). We've all met Undines and been staggered by their total lack of empathy and their reckless indifference to the impact they have on the world around them. It should leave you quite cold, reading a novel centered around such an unpleasant person. Instead I couldn't put this book down and that must surely be because Ms Wharton has created a convincing world where the "good" don't always triumph over the "evil". Undine's only comeuppance must surely be that like the rest of us, one day she will be old and unattractive and ultimately forgotten.
Customer Review: Wharton's Remarkable Creation of Undine Spragg!
Edith Wharton is still one of America's most well-known female novelists and writers. She creates Undine Spragg who aspires to adapt and adjust into New York City high society which is a recurring theme in Wharton's books like Age of Innocence or House of Mirth. Unlike House of Mirth, Undine is more comical, flawed and a challenge to any actress. This book should be made into a film if it hasn't already. I don't know why we have so much junk out there. Undine is not only comical but she is scheming to break into high society regardless of how it affects her husband and friends. This book is an American masterpiece and I have rediscovered it again since I took a course in college entitled American Novel as my seminar. This is an American Classic Piece of Literature.
Product Description
Wharton’s glittering satire of the newly affluent in Old New York
Considered by many to be her masterpiece, Edith Wharton’s second full-length work is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits and follies of the modern upper class. As she unfolds the story of Undine Spragg, from New York to Europe, Wharton affords us a detailed glimpse of what might be called the interior décor of this America and its nouveau riche fringes. Through a heroine who is as vain, spoiled, and selfish as she is irresistibly fascinating, and through a most intricate and satisfying plot that follows Undine’s marriages and affairs, she conveys a vision of social behavior that is both supremely informed and supremely disenchanted. BACKCOVER: “As long as men and women seek to use each other—and to use each other badly—Edith Wharton can be counted upon to provide the ideal commentary.”
—Anita Brookner
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